Football is a game of inches. A mere inch can be the difference between a game-winning touchdown and defeat. The NFL Rulebook states a touchdown is scored “if any part of the ball is on, above, or behind the opponent's goal line while legally in possession of an inbounds player, provided it is not a touchback.” Therefore, it is of the utmost importance for game officials and the audience watching on television to have the best view possible of the goal line and sideline area proximate the goal line. Reputations, glory, and money are at stake whenever an official makes a call on the field. Over the years, the National Football League, National Collegiate Athletic Association, and other professional and amateur football leagues have attempted to eliminate as many officiating errors as possible through the use of video instant replay.
The National Football League first experimented with instant replay in 1976 when Art McNally, then the director of officiating, wanted to find out how long a video review would delay a game. However, the League viewed instant replay at that point to be too costly and inefficient, and shelved instant replay until the mid-1980s.
In 1985, the National Football League began experimenting again with instant replay, adopting a rule that allowed each team to challenge an official's ruling on two plays per game. When a play is challenged, an official reviews all available video footage of the play in question to decide whether the call on the field should stand. This effective rule change helped improve officiating throughout the National Football League. Over the years, the rules regarding instant replay have changed, leading to an increased emphasis on the strategic element of challenging on-field rulings by officials. Some of these rule changes in the National Football League include mandatory reviews of each scoring play, each turnover, and every play after the two-minute warning of each half.
Today, instant replay has become a necessity for challenged plays, and television audiences have become accustomed to being able to relive and critique every play immediately after an official blows his whistle. Officials and viewers desire the most accurate, clear, and definitive view of each play, particularly when a touchdown is scored. It is desirable to have as accurate a view of the goal line and sidelines as possible to determine if the ball has crossed the plane of the goal line, if a player with possession of the ball should be considered down, if a player carried the ball out of bounds before reaching the goal line, or if a player successfully caught a ball with both feet down in the end zone, to name a few situations.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2014/0063260 (Bender et al.) discloses a video replay system constructed within a cuboid end zone pylon. Bender et al. teach a pylon comprising three high-definition cameras, one placed on the face of the pylon facing the goal line, and one on each face directed toward the sideline. This camera orientation is disadvantageous because each camera can only see down either the goal line, in the case of the camera facing the goal line, or each sideline, in the case of the cameras facing the sidelines, and it is desirable to be able to see where the goal line and sideline intersect to determine whether a touchdown has been scored. Bender et al. further teaches wireless transmission of video signals, which has been shown to be disadvantageous within an end zone pylon.
Thus, there is a long-felt need for an end zone pylon with two wide-lens corner-oriented cameras placed orthogonally in relation to one another, each capable of simultaneously visualizing the goal line and sideline, and a third camera mounted on the face of the pylon that is directly facing the goal line.
There is also a long-felt need for an end zone pylon that is wired and meets the NFL's and NCAA's safety standards.